HAVE YOU SEEN THESE?

WANTED: STROOPWAFFELS!

I have been searching the WHOLE of GERMANY for stroopwaffels- to NO AVAIL.  Seriously, whatever happened to these sweet tasting guys?  I thought they were supposed to be all over the place!  THEY SHOULD BE!

Movie of the '90s

Home Alone 2: Lost in New York City

What a legendary film.  Whatever happened to Macauley Culkin (who knows how to spell his name?), we will never know-- but seriously: this is the movie that Alastair and I would watch with the remote because there were so many funny bits we had to rewind, rewatch, and rewind again!  The just don't make them like this anymore.

A Few Thoughts...

a) The Mummy movies.  Remember when the first one came out?  It was awesome- the graphics were ahead if its time and we watched it with our parents, with our girlfriends at sleepovers (Brendan Fraser had it going on back then) and we watched it with the dudes when we were just happy they had finally switched of the Nintendo's and PlayStation's.  But then the second one came out (its on the TV right now, hence the thought) and it's just awful.  Cheesy lines, hideous plot... just tacky.  Not watching the latest one is one of my most wise decisions of the past two years.

b) Chocolate for breakfast: poor judgement or an ideal way to kick start the day?

c) Speedo's.  European men wear them all over the place.  Why, why, why???

I'm in Germany

Well, readers: here I am in Germany!  So far my stay has been positively "wonderbar"!  I was here for a couple of days before my Uncle Tony, Aunty Tricial and cousins Beth and Josh came out to visit my family also.  The house is full!  Mum says she likes it that way.  The boys are all crashing in the basement and Beth, U. Tony and A. Tricia are on the 3rd floor: for the first time I haven't been couch-bound because of guests!  Josh, Logan, Beth and I have take the subway into Frankfurt and enjoy some German sights... a very old car and some old town streets.

My family live outside of Oberursel, a small town in a forest on the outskirts of frankfurt.  It is the last stop on one of the main trains out of Frankfurt.  The town is very quaint and has one of the best italian ice cream and gelato shops I have ever been to!  Oberursel is a cobblestoned town centered around a beautiful church that sits in the top of a small hill.  The buildings are mainly original, dating back to the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.  It is very european! 

German word of the day: Schloss (castle).  We went to Heidelberg yesterday- one of the most incredible towns on my list of "incredible towns".  Sitting on the Rhine, Heidelberg is a hilly town with old cobbled streets, terra-cotta roofs and the most impressive castle ruins of all time.  

Heidleberg has a wonderschon cable car system that takes you all the way up the foresty mountainside.  Yoddle- yoddle and all of that.  We took the rickety carraige along with a handful of other tourists.  The weather was insanely hot and one of the old man- tourists let one go in the confined cabin.  Needless to say, the journey upward was a little stifled.

Regardless of such hardship, the view from the top was breath- taking.

Frankfurt itself is a great town.  There are 3 H&M stores on one street.  There goes my last pay check.  It is interesting to see such a defining difference between the old town and the new built town.  It is very much a hot spot for talent and culture.  And of course, great gelato.  Who would have thought?

That's it for now.  Stay tuned for more deutsch fun.  My language skills are improving by the way- I know you were all anxious about that.  Tomorrow we are going to some place that has a ton of vineyards- and of course you all know how I feel about that!  I fear I may be heartbroken to leave this place.

FYI: The Sandwich

It was brought to my attention that I had not followed through on one of my promises to wikipedia "the sandwich".  This is most regrettable.  The smartie pants who informed me of my neglect went on to explain that sanwiches are called as such because, back in the day (in England no less) there was a certain Lord Sandwich who, like many an aristocratic brit, had a little gamboling problem.  Obsessed with the game and finding little time to eat, Lord S asked his servants to just bring him a couple of slices of bread within which he would put food for a quick snack on the go.  Rather  convenient for the avid gambler, wouldn't you say? 

FYI From Afar

A little update for you, my fans.  I am here in Germany after a number of incredibly irritating delays including exploding toilets and re-routing to locations such as Great Britain (wasn't planning on that little detour...).  Today my luggage finally arrived.  

It is an incredible feeling to be back with my family for a couple of weeks!  I'll try to keep you all updated on my adventures!

Haili and I: Sunstroke in Santa Monica

This is Not a Joke

The following was a letter sent to The Daily Universe, our school newspaper.
Letter: Swimming pornography
Wed, 08/05/2009 - 21:15

I was horrified by the photo of Michael Phelps that appeared in The Daily Universe on Monday. Phelps, a rather muscular and good looking man, was shown shirtless along with another attractive swimmer.
Doesn’t The Daily Universe understand the women of BYU’s campus cannot lead virtuous lives with clean thoughts when they’re presented with pornography at every turn?
What makes this problem even worse, though, is the fact that male sports teams all across campus routinely practice with their shirts off. Perhaps men, in their own purity and innocence, don’t understand how the female mind works. Seeing a woman in a bikini has no effect on a man, so he doesn’t understand what it does to a woman when she sees a topless man.
Let me explain: unlike men, we can only control our thoughts to a point. When men walk around half-naked, they turn themselves into pornography, and thus they tempt us.
So, out of my deep love and respect for the men on this campus, I beg them: please stop turning yourselves into pornography. Show yourselves enough respect to cover up and save the sight of your naked torso for your wife. Besides, women need you to be the gate-keepers of chastity.
Emily BelangerLee, N.H.

We Went to California

As many of you will already know, Haili and I embarked on a little adventure to California (having been in need of some serious relaxation and a having a general get-me-out-of-Utah mood for the past 4 months). These are the highly anticipated pictures for you, my dedicated blog stalkers. Above is Haili and myself in the car, poring over a map (something we did A LOT), eating at the apparently famous In-N-Out Burger (I've had better) and laughing (another thing we did a lot). I took that epic picture just outside of Vegas (in a moving car- talentssss) and the palm trees are supposed to be significant of our arrival to L.A.
We stayed in Santa Monica for a few nights with some of Haili's friends and took in the sights, went shopping etc...

Of course, being the busy women that we are, there was much work to be done. This was a serious business trip on many levels. Haili did some music stuff (and I did some too), I tried my hand at directing, Hails and I were asked to judge a couple of episodes of American Idol (tune in next season!) and Haili accepted an award for something or other. We also swung by the Kodak Theater for a premier.

All of our hard work was rather tiresome, so we retreated to the beach for some "down time" as the Americans call it. The ocean was fabulous- I miss living so close to it- and the scenery (see central picture) was more than satisfactory. Many thanks to our hosts who provided us with Aloe Vera for obvious reasons...

Of course we acted like tourists on our vacation. I might suggest that it is near impossible for anyone to walk down Hollywood Blvd without looking like a tourist. We watched a movie at Manns Chinese Theater, met a few comic book heroes, and swung by some iconic spots.

We tried to appreciate the Walk of fame, crowded as it was. Michael Jacksons star was rather en-shrined due to recent happenings (R.I.P.)...

We managed to drop in on the L. A. Temple, and later on the Newport Beach Temple. Beautiful! The Newport temple was so different to most. I liked it a lot.

Alright, alright: the splurge of the week was Madame Tussaud's. The collages are rather tight, so just click on the image to enlarge it. Fancy, yes?

We went to a party and met some people- Justin Timberlake was a bore, Jim Carey was a riot, Will Smith was darling, Pierce Brosnon didn't shut up about how he was robben of Casino Royale, and the Zafron was a dream. Just kidding! This is still at Tussauds...

... As is this. The "Really Real" awards go to Whoopi Goldberg, Merryl Streep and Jim Carey.

All in all, we had a FABULOUS time and ended up staying an extra day (partly because of a blown tire and partly because we craved a little more of the beach!).